How to encode 720P HD files for Youtube.

[videopro]

adamr316, are you saying the 48kHz is required for any uploads or only the non-reencoded versions using the method above?

Also, can anyone confirm if the loophole for getting in without reencode is still open?

Demistate, can you please publish your exact query or command line for FFMPEG? I have tried to replicate the settings using HandBrake and when YouTube processed the file, I got an error back saying the file could not be processed.

[adamr316]

I never had issues with standard def videos encoded at a 44.1kHz sampling rate. When YouTube went HD...that's when I had to start using the standard 48kHz. The only reason I used 44.1 was because I figured I'd use those bits more efficiently but YouTube HD had issues with it.

I'm not sure about your other questions and re-ended material.

[jesse]

Hey i had never heard of x264! Its amazing. I was having all sorts of trouble with h.264 with color shifts and quality.

My source is 1280x720 23.98 fps.

Although the HD looks fantastic the normal quality looks worse than earlier non-hd type uploads. Any advice?

Also note I am on a mac and downloaded the x264 codec from apple
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...64encoder.html

Can you specify the difference between "highest quality for now" and "higher quality down the road" Some of the specification didn't necessarily seems to translate to making these differences in quicktime.

Thanks for the x264 tip!

[Demistate]

Old and outdated information edited out.

[Demistate]

Although the HD looks fantastic the normal quality looks worse than earlier non-hd type uploads. Any advice?

As of today: June 1, 2010. 360P quality looks pretty good on Youtube. This is the default for the Desktop player. Streams meant for 2g service (like iPhone) will not look so great. There is nothing you can do about this since its a 64kbps stream total for audio and video. It's like streaming video quality over dialup.

Also note I am on a mac and downloaded the x264 codec from apple
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...64encoder.html

This plugin is amazing. Does it work in Apple Compressor for outputting from a FCP timeline?

[jesse]

I broke this into a few numbers...

1) Thanks for the advice. Yes I think the x264 plu will work because it shoes up in QT. But haven't tested yet.

2) "Highest quality now basically allows you to upload your own file with zero transcoding."
I guess i don't really know how to achieve this since I am doing everything in qucitime pro on a mac. Let me know if there is any further info on this approach.

3) I don't agree that it is a matter of perception. There are quite a few discussions about how Youtube HD is compromising the quality of the normal quality and making it worse than average. here are a few:

http://help.youtube.com/group/youtub...a2ef26c77054ed

http://help.youtube.com/group/youtub...ff52cb28a3d4c1


And a new answer from my post...
http://help.youtube.com/group/youtub...c1c76514d2080a


Here are examples of videos that good good both in Youtube normal quality and in HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDfpd...ead/117/857005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc...ead/117/857005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyYIy...ead/117/857005

There must be an answer somewhere.

Jesse

[Demistate]

3) I don't agree that it is a matter of perception. There are quite a few discussions about how Youtube HD is compromising the quality of the normal quality and making it worse than average. here are a few:

http://help.youtube.com/group/youtub...a2ef26c77054ed

http://help.youtube.com/group/youtub...ff52cb28a3d4c1


And a new answer from my post...
http://help.youtube.com/group/youtub...c1c76514d2080a


Here are examples of videos that good good both in Youtube normal quality and in HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDfpd...ead/117/857005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc...ead/117/857005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyYIy...ead/117/857005

There must be an answer somewhere.

Jesse

I found this interesting. It might explain what's going on:

The other thing is that 4x3 normal is encoded as a 320x240 flash,
while widescreen normal is encoded as 320x180. Since the YouTube
player has a vertical dimension of 360, the widescreen image is being
scaled up more that that of the same 4x3 image.

Since it's youtube's service there is really nothing you can do about how they encode. If you don't like it there are other video sharing services online. Google could always re-code the "base quality" for these videos later down the line and make them higher quality at "normal" eventually, but for now you get what Youtube gives you.

[jesse]

I think you are right. From everything i found this is an unsolved bug. Basically Youtube's HD encoding pipeline is causing the normal quality to be worse than average. Because HD was available I became fixated on solving or finding the absolute right method. I searched for several days and I think it may just be the way it encodes. I am going to down res and make my work available in higher quality for now.

However-- if anyone stumbles on this and finds a solution to make HD and normal quality both look good, Please post it here as well!
Thanks!

[ayim]

Hey, I have an issue with an audio out-of-sync thing when I upload

I encoded the audio through itunes 256 AAC, and I matched it against the original wave and it was exactly the same, so I mux the MP4 and M4A files together and then I checked the audio again in my editing program, still the same as wave, so I uploaded it to youtube, and it seemed a bit off sync, so I downloaded the youtube video and checked the audio against the wave again and it was off by almost half a second.

so I thought I'd give MP3 a try and see if youtube desyncs that, but it seems EVERY mp3 encode I do changes, no matter what I use :S

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7103/02132009021857sk9.jpg

Wave in middle, MP3 on top, mp3 try 2 on bottom (I used lame mp3 encoder through megui there, before I had tried the mp3s in vegas and in CDex)

Is this what MP3s just do? Btw, that MP3-Wave audio wave comparision is exactly what the uploaded youtubes audio looked like when compared with original M4A file...


anyway, I don't even need MP3, just a way to upload to youtube WITHOUT them desyncing my audio lol

[Demistate]

Hey, I have an issue with an audio out-of-sync thing when I upload

I encoded the audio through itunes 256 AAC, and I matched it against the original wave and it was exactly the same, so I mux the MP4 and M4A files together and then I checked the audio again in my editing program, still the same as wave, so I uploaded it to youtube, and it seemed a bit off sync, so I downloaded the youtube video and checked the audio against the wave again and it was off by almost half a second.

so I thought I'd give MP3 a try and see if youtube desyncs that, but it seems EVERY mp3 encode I do changes, no matter what I use :S

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7103/02132009021857sk9.jpg

Wave in middle, MP3 on top, mp3 try 2 on bottom (I used lame mp3 encoder through megui there, before I had tried the mp3s in vegas and in CDex)

Is this what MP3s just do? Btw, that MP3-Wave audio wave comparision is exactly what the uploaded youtubes audio looked like when compared with original M4A file...


anyway, I don't even need MP3, just a way to upload to youtube WITHOUT them desyncing my audio lol

Mp3 and AAC can add an audio delay when encoding (by up to 24 frames!) Most video encoders that also encode the audio know the delay and will compensate for it, however encoding with separate applications is not recommended since you wont know the correct delay to trim or pad the audio file with for sync with the video.

If you're using AVIsynth with a DV file, I noticed every time I had any sort of still frame or null frame, I would loose sync with audio, so you may want to try and film "black" on your camera (lens cap on, then record) and place that behind any titles so that you don't have any non-moving parts of your video. Its just a limitation to the free encoder utilities.